Officials in Texas are facing mounting questions about whether they did enough to get people out of harm's way before a flash flood swept down the Guadalupe River and killed more than 100 people, including 27 children and counselors at an all-girls Christian camp.
More than 160 people are still believed to be missing in Texas days after flash floods killed over 100 people during the July Fourth weekend, the state’s governor said Tuesday. In the days since the devastation, state, federal and Kerr County officials have deflected pointed questions about preparations and warnings.
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The Associated Press has assembled an approximate timeline of the 48 hours before, during and after the deadly flash flood, beginning with the activation of the state's emergency response resources on July 2 — the same day Texas signed off on the camp's emergency plan for disasters.
By daybreak on July Fourth, it was clear that some children from Camp Mystic were swept away by floodwaters even as others were able to escape to safety in their pajamas.
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Wednesday, July 2:
The Texas Division of Emergency Management activates state emergency response resources anticipating the threat of flooding in parts of West and Central Texas.
On the same day, Texas inspectors sign off on Camp Mystic’s emergency planning, records obtained by the AP show.
Thursday, July 3:
10 a.m.: County judges and city mayors are invited to be on a daily call to discuss weather forecasts, according to comments made Friday by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and a regional coordinator reaches out personally to officials in the area.
According to Patrick: “The message was sent. It is up to the local counties and mayors under the law to evacuate if they feel the need.”
1:18 p.m.: The National Weather Service’s Austin/San Antonio office issues a flood watch estimating rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.6 centimeters), with isolated amounts of 5 to 7 inches (12.7 to 17.8 centimeters) for parts of south central Texas, including Kerr County. “Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers,” the alert says.
Friday, July 4:
1:14 a.m.: Citing radar, the National Weather Service issues a flash flood warning for central Kerr County until 4:15 a.m., warning that it is life-threatening.
Around 3 a.m.: Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice is running on the river trail around 3 or 3:30 a.m. and “everything was fine,” he says later.
“Four o’clock when I left, there was no signs of it rising at that point,” Rice says during a news conference. “This happened very quickly over a very short amount of time.”
Rice says the isolated location and the heavy rain in a short period of time made a dangerous event that was not predictable, even with radar and National Weather Service warnings.
“This is not like a tornado where you can have a siren. This is not like a hurricane where you’re planning weeks in advance,” Rice says. “It hit. It hit hard.”
Between 3 and 5 a.m.: Floodwaters begin to inundate Camp Mystic. Young campers, counselors and staff are roused from sleep and begin a desperate rush to higher ground, according to social media accounts. Some girls had to climb through cabin windows. One staffer says she was on the roof with water rising toward her at 4 a.m.
3:30 a.m.: Erin Burgess wakes up to thunder at around 3:30 a.m. in her home in Bumble Bee Hills, a housing development about halfway between Hunt and Ingram. Within a half hour or so, the water is rushing into her house. Burgess and her 19-year-old son cling to a tree outside for an hour before the water recedes.
3:35 a.m.: The National Weather Service extends its flash flood warning for central Kerr County until 7 a.m. based on radar and automated gauges.
3:35 a.m.: A U.S. Geological Survey gauge along the Guadalupe River about five miles north of Camp Mystic and about a mile east of Hunt shows the river has reached nearly 16 feet (4.9 meters). The river at that location is subject to minor flooding at 10 feet (3 meters).
Between 4 and 5 a.m.: Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha is first notified about the situation from one of his sergeants.
4 a.m.: Kerrville police officers on their way to work start to encounter rising floodwaters and people in need of rescue. A sergeant comes to the intersection of FM 1340, a secondary highway, and State Highway 39 and realizes that he is trapped “on an island that was Hunt, Texas,” according to Jonathan Lamb, a community services officer with Kerrville police.
According to Lamb, “He saw people, dozens of people, trapped on roofs. He saw people trapped in swift moving water.”
For 13 hours until 5 p.m., according to Lamb, the sergeant, a detective, several Hunt volunteer firefighters and an emergency room doctor work to rescue, evacuate and treat injuries largely on their own, until other emergency responders are able to arrive.
Meanwhile in Kerrville, officers are rescuing and evacuating a few hundred people as they realized low lying areas close to the river were in danger, according to Lamb: “One of them was wrapping a 100-foot (30-meter) flex line garden hose around his waist to go into the water and rescue those people. I know that this tragedy, as horrific as it is, could’ve been so much worse.”
4:03 a.m.: The National Weather Service names a flash flood emergency for south-central Kerr County, saying in all caps that it is a “particularly dangerous situation. Seek higher ground now!” Citing radar and automated rain gauges, the bulletin says low water crossings and the Guadalupe at Hunt are flooding.
4:35 a.m.: A U.S. Geological Survey gauge along the Guadalupe about 5 miles (8 kilometers) north of Camp Mystic and about a mile (1.6 kilometers) east of Hunt stops sending data. The last recorded river level from the instrumentation is 29.5 feet (9 meters).
5:30 a.m.: Police knock on Matthew Stone’s door in a Kerrville riverfront neighborhood. They are urging residents to evacuate. According to Stone, he had received no emergency warning on his phone: “We got no emergency alert. There was nothing.” Then: “a pitch-black wall of death.”
5:34 a.m.: The National Weather Service bulletin reports a flash flood emergency from Hunt through Kerrville and Center Point, saying “automated rain gauges indicate a large and deadly flood wave is moving down the Guadalupe River.”
5:38 a.m.: In a comment on a Facebook post from the Kerr County Sheriff's Office, a woman begs for someone to help her mother-in-law, who is trapped in a trailer between Hunt and Ingram.
5:52 a.m.: Minutes later, another woman comments on the same post to say Bumble Bee Hills has flooded and needs help.
6:06 a.m.: The National Weather Service extends the flash flood warning until 10:00 a.m. The bulletin also says local law enforcement have reported “major flooding” and water rescues along the Guadalupe.
6:19 a.m.: Another person comments on the Kerr County Sheriff’s Facebook page to say that a “friend and her family are on their rooftop in Hunt, waiting for rescue.”
6:45 a.m.: A U.S. Geological Survey gauge in Kerrville shows that the Guadalupe has peaked at 34.29 feet (10.45 meters), a figure that is preliminary and subject to change. It is the third-highest level at that location, according to the data. The record of 39 feet (11.9 meters) was set July 2, 1932,
6:59 a.m.: Erin Burgess is surveying damage in her flooded home after the river water recedes. The line of muck has reached halfway up her kitchen cabinets.
7:24 a.m.: The National Weather Service advises that the flash flood emergency extends to the community of Sisterdale.
7:32 a.m.: Via Facebook the Kendall County emergency management agency tells people along the Guadalupe in the community of Comfort that they are under mandatory evacuation orders.
9:34 a.m.: A rescue boat brings several people to safety after they are pulled from a home on Carolyn Road in Comfort, according to communications between county dispatchers and fire personnel. The boat turns around to get others still trapped in the house.
10:31 a.m.: According to archived radio traffic between dispatchers and fire personnel, water levels are rising in Kendall County, which is adjacent to Kerr County. One unit is asked to check whether the water is over the road at a bridge over Cypress Creek, a tributary of the Guadalupe in Comfort.
“It’s just pouring in right now. I don’t believe it’s over the banks,” the unit answers. “But we do have some houses in low flooding areas taking on water, but I don’t believe it is over the bank at this time.”
Another fire unit is asked its location. The unit responds to report “assisting with that trapped patient in the tree.”
10:56 a.m.: Kendall County dispatch advises that a team be sent to the Bergheim Campground, near Guadalupe River State Park. They are asked to “try to make contact with management and everybody down there to advise them that it needs to be evacuated here in the next hour or so.”
11:29 a.m.: Camp Mystic parents receive an email noting that the grounds have “sustained catastrophic level floods” and are without power, water and internet. Parents with a daughter who is not accounted for have been contacted directly contacted, according to the camp.
11:30 a.m.: Local officials hold the first news conference to describe the situation and response. Asked what kind of warnings went out to residents, Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s chief elected official, says: “We do not have a warning system.”
Asked why camps were not evacuated, Kelly says officials did not know “this flood” was coming.
“We had no reason to believe that this was going to be any, anything like what’s happened here,” Kelly says. “None whatsoever.”
3:30 p.m.: Two afternoon news conferences are the first to offer an initial death toll. Lt. Gov. Patrick says six to 10 bodies have been found so far. Around the same time, Leitha, the Kerr County sheriff, reports that 13 people have died. Patrick also announces that the whereabouts of about 23 girls attending Camp Mystic are unknown.
7:11 p.m.: A state agency responsible for search and rescue operations, the Texas Game Wardens, posts on Facebook to say its agents have entered Camp Mystic and “are evacuating the campers to safety.” Roughly two dozen campers are still missing.
9 p.m.: Gov. Greg Abbott signs a disaster declaration at a news conference. Leitha reports about 24 fatalities.